Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/111

Rh describes how, though the wrecked party "had practically nothing to live upon but bear and walrus meat for twelve months, there was not a drop of lime-juice saved from the ship; and the vegetables were so few that they could not be taken into account." Dr. Neale continues, "My belief is that our complete freedom from scurvy was due to our living in a pure atmosphere night and day, and our diet being mainly fresh meat with plenty of blood in it Give me a hut on shore and a rifle with easy access of game, and I would defy scurvy in the Arctic Regions; but to live on board a ship, to live in a hot forecastle or cabin, and to live on tinned provisions, is the best means of courting the disease."

We know now, by careful physiological research and by further experience of well-equipped expeditions basing their food equipment on the results of our knowledge obtained by these investigations, that scurvy is largely, if not entirely, due to the presence of injurious ptomaines associated with animal food-stuffs, and it has been said by an eminent physiologist that it is simply a form of chronic ptomaine poisoning. A well-equipped Polar expedition, where the greatest possible care has been exercised by the leader, and honestly carried out by the contractors, should not, therefore, have scurvy on board or on shore at its